The Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) has suspended its nationwide strike as a committee set up to address their demands begins negotiation process with the government.
The committee is made up of officials of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Speaking to Kwaku Nhyira-Addo on The Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday (6 January), Mark Korankye, general secretary of TEWU said the labour laws and the Labour Act do not permit them to negotiate while on industrial strike.
According to him, “the government agreed that there’s the need to pay the allowances but the details of it must be worked out by a committee. So, we formed a committee of seven members with four members from the government and three members from the union. And this committee will work and represent a recommendation for the government’s approval.”
He added: “So, the committee we thought, should start their work immediately but they cannot start work and engage the union when the union is on strike, the labour law frowns on that. So, for us to get the committee to start work immediately, we agreed that we’ll suspend our strike and allow the committee to finish its work.”
However, he also said that “depending on the outcome of the committee’s work, we’ll either resume the strike if we’re not satisfied or call off the strike if we’re satisfied.”
On 5 January, TEWU began a nationwide strike regarding what they call the government’s failure to pay Continuous Development Professional (CPD) allowance to non-teaching staff.
Addressing a news conference in Accra on Tuesday (4 January) the union indicated that several attempts to resolve to get the government to address the issue have proved futile hence, their action.
TEWU has been in talks with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission since June 2019 on the review of the conditions of service for unionised staff of public universities.
Nicholas Brown
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